ID fraud ring trial opens

An Ohio license agency employee goes on trial in Harrisonburg today accused of issuing hundreds of state identity cards to immigrants based on false credentials. The government alleges the Ohio connection was part of a “criminal cottage industry” to provide required documentation for immigrants working at a Rockingham County meat packing plant.

According to The Columbus Dispatch, the defendant plans to claim she relied on her supervisor who told her to process the license applications at the privately-operated Ohio license bureau. The government hopes to prove the employee should have known the Puerto Rico birth certificates and other supporting documents did not belong to the applicants.

Eight people were charged in the investigation that came to light with a government raid at the Cargill Meat Solutions Plant in Dayton a year ago. Seven have pleaded guilty.